A Brief History of Unusual Objects Designed to Kill People from Far Away, Part 1b: Mongolian Thumb Rings

By mastering the assembly of compound materials, the Mongols had created an incredibly powerful bow, as we saw in the previous entry. But the way that they used it, which differed from the European method, necessitated a secondary support object that was the result of early ergonomic observation.

The Europeans used what is known as the "Mediterranean draw" to pull their bowstrings back. This uses the first three fingers of the hand. However, the Mongols used their thumbs to pull the string back, and curled their index and middle fingers over the thumb to support it. This, they reckoned, was stronger and allowed for a cleaner release. Whether you're an archer or not, if you use your own hand to mimic the release of either pull, you can clearly see it's easier to instantly spread your thumb, forefinger and middle finger than it is to release the first three fingers of your hand; that's because the thumb and fingers oppose, and thus balance, each other.

But concentrating over 100 pounds of force against the thumb would damage that thumb. So to protect them, the Mongols had to create yet another object: The thumb ring. This hand-carved object could be made from wood, bone, horn or antler. Here's a shot of a modern-day one owned by this Hong-Kong-based archery enthusiast:

Richardson uses a loop tied around the string of his Western bow in conjunction with a thumb ring. As he explains,

With this system, I [can] pull 74 lbs. at a 31 inches draw and still hold it longer than most people can hold their breath (I'm 60-years-old). Now, my sons, wife and hunting buddy all shoot with a thumb ring. The draw back is that the thumb ring needs to be fitted to each user because everyone's thumb is a different size. It takes about a week to get used to this type of release.... Once you get used to the thumb draw, the advantages are hard to resist.

While the Mongols were practical warriors through and through that didn't favor adornment, an article on AsianArt by Eric J. Hoffman points out that succeeding empires (Chinese, Manchu, Mughal) created archer's rings with considerably more flair:

The hard part about killing people is that sometimes they kill you back. (Just ask Prince Oberyn.) So at some point, some primitive pugilist concluded it would be better if one was not within arm's reach of the person one was trying to kill.One way you can do this is...

I've always bought my soap pump bottles from a company I used to work for, because I remember doing the renderings and CAD drawings for the dispenser head. As ID'ers, we don't get a lot of compensation or credit, so little, quiet ego boosts like this go a long way....

I consider your average sinkside soap dish a design failure. They either have no drainage, leaving the bar to sit in a puddle of water that transforms its underside into slime, or they drain into a container, and either way you have to empty the damn thing. The notion that...

Back in 2010 we showed you designer Jinsun Park's nifty Color Picker concept. The idea was that a magic marker would be loaded up with both a sensor and RGB ink cartridges, allowing you to instantly scan a color—and draw with it on paper. Here's one of her original renderings:Jinsun...